Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tales languages

A Lesson in Long Dau

Long Dau is the court language of Long Dau nobility and Wingul's mother tongue. It is an oral language without a writing system, though there exists a dictionary in circulation, most likely written out phonetically in Rieze Maxian. Only the elite of the Long Dau tribe are allowed to speak it, but Gaius has learned the language thanks to Wingul. Rowen has also studied some of it when he was young. They are the only ones who can still speak it.

Long Dau Guide

Long Dau, like Melnics in Tales of Eternia, is based on English. It basically takes English phonemes and replaces them by others to create a unique-sounding language. As it was created for a Japanese audience, the official Xillia guides all use katakana in their conversion tables, and Melnics guides and Long Dau translators on the internet have been simply romanizing this katakana, from what I have seen so far.

I have tried to come up with a system that would be a little closer to English, though with a couple of borrowings from some Japanese romanization conventions, which I will explain here.

This is only my personal system, though, so if you prefer to use the more common system or this cool little online translator, feel free to ignore this post.

This is the chart I am personally using. English is in pink and Long Dau is blue.

[Note: vowels should be pronounced like in Japanese.]

How to form a word in Long Dau?

All you have to do is take a word in English and replace the letters with their equivalents.

Example: "you": Y→ya, O→i, U→o = "yaio"

What's the matter with "n'"?

The Long Dau sound of the English E is a syllabic n, like the Japanese ん/ン. The apostrophe serves to indicate it is different from the n that replaces the English V.

What's the matter with those "(u)"?

The u is used before other consonants, but is replaced by a vowel when followed by it.

Example: "hello": H→a, E→n', L→l(u), L→l(u), O→i Since a consonant (l) is following the first l, the u is kept. But the second l is followed by a i, a vowel, so the i replaces the u. Therefore, "hello" in Long Dau is H→a, E→n', L→lu, L→l, O→i = "an'luli"

[Note: Sometimes Wingul adds a u before a vowel despite the Fan's Bible guide advising to integrate the vowels. This is probably a usage thing, in the same way that in English you can say "don't" and "do not" or that some spellings vary with different kinds on English - it depends on the speaker and the situation. In that sense, both "an'luli" and "an'lului" would be correct, though the former is recommanded because it is clearer.]

The u is usually dropped at the end of a word, or when consonants can flow well together, but usage may vary. Example: "yes": Y→ya, E→n', S→s(u) = "yans"; "spot": S→s(u), P→p(u), O→i, T→ti = "spiti"

What's the matter with "ji"?

Following the rule explained above, the English word "do" would logically become "di" in Long Dau. However, the Long Dau di is used for the English R. In Japanese the difference is made by writing DO ヂ and R ディ in katakana - the former being pronounced like "djee" and the latter like "dee".

Example: "do not": DO→ji, N→m(u), O→i, T→ti = "ji miti"

What to do with double vowels?

The simplest thing is probably to simply write the vowel two times, but that has a tendency to make words longer. For that reason, I recommand the use of a diacritic sign (accents etc) to indicate one vowel is supposed to be there two times. I personally use macrons (ū), but all sorts of marks can be used depending on what's available on your keyboard: ù, ú, û, ü, ũ, ů, etc. For those who have no way to make those signs easily, I propose using an apostrophe like with the n': u'. Or just simply double it: uu.

The distinction is important especially for I/u, as "u" is used for most consonants, but also for C/wa, W/ba and Y/ya when followed by H/a: R/di and T/ti when followed by O/i; and Q/yo when followed by O/i. It helps make the distinction between two similar words.

Example: "cat": C→wa, A→e, T→ti = "waeti"; "chat": C→wa, H→a, A→e, T→ti = "waaeti", or "wāeti", "wa'ati", etc.

Some Rules

Names and Elympion words stay the same. You say "Milla" and "spyrix", not "Tūlule" and "spuyadiuz". "Booster" and "Link" exist in Long Dau, however: "Bīstin’di" and "Lūmuk".

Keep sentences as simple as possible. What matters for the meaning is the given translation, not the actual English rendition of the Long Dau. For example, in the game, Wingul once says "I planned on capturing you, Maxwell. But it'd be easier killing you." The actual Long Dau line? "Maxwell, sun'n'tus n'esūn'di tī kūlul." ("Maxwell, seems easier to kill.") That's because turning everything into Long Dau would make sentences way too long and confusing. For that reason, the Long Dau part should use short English words as a base (for example, use "see" instead of "visualize", "good" rather than "delicious", etc.) and not contain all the information if there is too much. The true message can be conveyed in the translation in the subtitles or your fanfic's author notes.

The guides also say that we can drop syllables to shorten words (ex. "wāen'" instead of "wāemuwan'" for "chance"), but don't give rules for it. It could be treated like a kind of slang.

Contractions do not require an apostrophe (which we are already using for n' anyway). So "I've" would be "Unun'". Although, the guides recommand to not use contractions (and so use "U aenun", "I have", instead).

"Baiba!" ("Wow!") is a handy word that Long Dau (and Melnics) speakers seem to use to convey various emotions, like surprise, excitement, etc.

Examples

From the game:

"Elize, watch your tongue. You should know to respect your elders.": "Elize, saiba situn' din'spun'wati tī yaiodi sopun'diuidi." ("Elize, show some respect to your superior.)

"No! I could never fall prey to a mere tool!": "Mi! Tiaus us miti... bāeti us kūlulūmug tun'!" ("No! This is not... what is killing me!)

"For Gaius!": "Hidi Gaius!"

"You shall not pass!": "Mi imun’ puesusun’s!" ("No one passes!")

"Forgive me... Arst...": "Hidigūnun' tun'... Arst..."

"Ilbert... Only Gaius is worthy to rule the world.": "Ilbert… Imuluya Gaius waem tidioluya lun'ed tiaus baidilud." (Ilbert… Only Gaius can truly lead this world.")

"Perhaps you finally know how I feel.": "Yaio saiolud kumiba… buya miba…" ("You should know... by now...")

Other examples:

"Hello. My name is Wingul.": "An'luli. Tuya metun us Wingul." ; or simply "An'luli. Um Wingul." (Hello. I'm Wingul.)

"I'm hungry. I want to eat Gaius dumplings. They are delicious.": "Um aomugudiya. U baemuti tī n'eti Gaius dotuplūmugus. Tian'ya edin' gīd." ("[...] They are good.")

"I once wrote a song about them, but Gaius decided to ban it.": "U badī e simug, boti Gaius bemumun'd ut." ("I wrote a song, but Gaius banned it.")

"Baiba!"

(Ulul stīp fīlumug edīomud miba xP)

References

Tales of Xillia Official World Guidance Book, p.32

Tales of Xillia Fan's Bible, pp.170-171

Tales of Xillia 2 Perfect Guide, pp.472-473

#tales languages

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#tales languages